Holiday ideas for thrill seekers

It used to be that all you needed for holiday bragging rights was to visit a far-flung destination. But now the only way to impress is to do something physically gruelling and preferably dangerous.

Here are some options that fit the bill and will ensure that work feels like the vacation.

Bolivian Death Road

This 55-kilometre (mostly) downhill mountain bike ride descends 3600 metres from the high-altitude plains to the Amazon jungle. The first 22 kilometres are on winding asphalt with views of grazing llamas and villages. The final kilometres are on a narrow dirt track with a sheer drop on one side.

Ben Nevis is the final mountain in the 24-peak Ramsay Round route in Scotland.
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The drive to La Cumbre pass at the top of the Camino de la Muerte takes three to four hours from La Paz and the riding time is about four to five hours. Since 1998, 20 riders have died on the road, three in the past three years.

The goal is to climb all the Lochaber peaks in one day, including Scotland’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, and fewer than 80 people have completed it within that time.

If you’re after something that doesn’t require a support crew and years of training, there’s the nearby Glencoe Munro Circuit: 30 kilometres with 3800 metres of ascent that includes the eight Munros (mountains higher than 914 metres) that flank Glencoe. ramsaysround.com

Cliff camping in Victoria

The Beyond the Edge cliff camping experience at Mount Buffalo National Park (about 3.5 hours from Melbourne) involves abseiling down to a portaledge, where you spend the night.

Mount Kilimanjaro, where climbers can suffer altitude sickness in addition to dealing with the cold.
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Dinner and breakfast are included and for an extra $350 per person you can do a 300-metre abseil, claimed to be one of the world’s highest commercial descents.

Mount Kilimanjaro

On the Canadian barque Picton Castle crew do rigging work, sail making, sanding, painting, tarring the rig and oiling the spars.
Phil Hearne

Climbing the highest mountain in Africa takes between six and 10 days. The 5895-metre peak is scaled by about 50,000 people a year, although one-third don’t make it to the summit. An estimated three to seven people die attempting the climb each year.

You don’t have to be super fit to climb Kilimanjaro, which accounts for its popularity, but it is no picnic, especially at the higher altitudes, when climbers can suffer altitude sickness in addition to dealing with the cold.

Drive across Baikal Lake, "a monster of an adventure, so tough that many mere mortals would run a mile" from it.
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Sail the high seas

Experience life at sea from a different era. The Picton Castle is a three-masted tall ship based in Nova Scotia, Canada. You can join the crew as a trainee and sign on for a leg of the barque’s round-the-world voyage. The first leg from Nova Scotia to the Cook Islands starts on March 19, 2018, and ends on August 1.

While aboard you get to do rigging work, sailmaking, sanding, painting, tarring the rig and oiling the spars among other seafarer duties. Crew take turns helping in the galley.